Interview: Def leppard lyric

Q: This is not the first time that you write with an outsider: Mutt Lange was one example. But to be fair, he was coming from AC/DC, which was a hard sound. Then he worked with you guys — still a hard sound — and then he moved to Bryan Adams and Shania Twain. This time, a devil's advocate would say that you now co-wrote some tunes with people that have written with Aerosmith and Ozzy, but you also wrote one song with people that have written with *N Sync and Backstreet Boys. Rick, are you not setting yourself up for scrutiny?

We do not mind it at all... Marti Frederiksen, he's worked with Aerosmith and Ozzy, but he is now working with Faith Hill. We like working with talented people. And that is why we worked with Per Aldeheim and Andreas Carlsson. It does not matter to us; we always try to write the great, classic song. The song is always the king with us.

When it came to Andreas Carlsson and Per Aldeheim, they really just sent us a tape. We did not intend to write with them. They just felt that it would be something that would sound like a Def Leppard song. We get so many tapes with songs on them that people say "sounds like a Def Leppard song." Nine times out of ten it sounds nothing like it (laughs). But this time, it did have a "Love Bites" vibe. So we felt that we could do it.

Then they invited us to Sweden and they wanted to produce it. So we said, "great!" The beauty of this album for us and me in particular, was that we did not produce every single song on it. We had co-producers on it. It was great in that environment when all you had to think about was being a musician. For me, it was very refreshing to let someone else have control.

Q: It is refreshing that you do not have egos and acknowledge that the song is king. What is one of the biggest lessons you have learned along the way?

Actually, that may be it. Mutt Lange said to us: "never fall in love with your own music." We are not too protective of our song, if someone comes in and says that we should change the 16 bars in the middle, and if it improves it, everyone benefits... that means taking input from other members of the band as well as from outsiders.

Q: Exactly. Rick, every time I ask someone: "What is your favorite album?" — the artist tends to say "this most recent one." But you have been there from Getcha Rocks Off — what is your favorite Def Leppard album?

It is a tough question. You are absolutely right, every artist has a tendency to say the new one: that is the one they believe in and that is where their direction lies at that point. But I have an affection for Pyromania. It was the first worldwide success album that truly opened doors.

It was the first time that we had the luxury of producing, writing and recording an album the way we wanted to. The two albums were done on a limited budget and in a limited time frame. So I do have an affection for that album, the era, the timing, and mainly for what it did for the industry — it set a precedent. All of our albums were relevant but our first album could have been done differently.

¿ Quick fact ?Def Leppard was inducted into Hollywood's Rockwalk on September 5, 2000 by Queen guitarist Brian May. And if that wasn't enough, the mayor of Los Angeles declared September 5th, "Def Leppard Day."

Q: For 1980, the guitars and drums on On Through The Night were unique. High 'N' Dry ranks as one of the best metal albums, Pyromania is the most influential rock album of the past 25 years and Hysteria could arguably be the greatest studio album. Adrenalize was underrated and Slang showed how versatile you guys were. I bring this up because Phil said that you "should have gone on vacation the entire 1990s." He was saying it in a tongue-in-cheek tone, but how do you feel that throughout the 1990s, you put out great albums but were seen as uncool after being darlings in the 1980s?

Well it can be a little frustrating, but it is natural. We had a tremendous run of success in the 1980s, especially in the late 1980s. But because of that, you create an environment where a particular sound becomes very much copied. And the whole thing went over the top, everyone started to sound very similar. That was not the fault of Def Leppard, it was the sound of the music that we had created. It was inevitable that at some point, someone would come up and do the total opposite of what we were doing. And that is when the grunge thing kicked in. And that was good because everything got stale.

The bands that came out of the grunge thing were absolutely everything that Def Leppard was not. Because of that, we suffered from it. But we did that when we came out, with the so-called New Wave of British Metal, to bands like Journey and Foreigner. They pretty much disappeared. It comes around and goes around. You have to believe in what you do, make albums that you want, be selfish about it, and ride out of the storm. Eventually, you come back and the music speaks for itself.

Q: Yes, Def Leppard has endured some bad things. No need to go over those now, but if I dare say, you fellas have been fairly lucky. You are talented and have worked hard, but to sell 45 million records, you need some luck. Agree or disagree?

There is not an artist that has become popular without some luck. Luck comes in many forms. You have to have some sort of talent, substance and say something special, but luck comes with time and that is when a song is played at a radio station, or the right person hears it and wants to pick it up, or just how the video turns out. You absolutely need some luck to spark the chain reaction that leads to more things. But of course, you need something to back it up. So yes, without that bit of timing, some great albums have never seen the light of day. The line between a successful album or a failure can be very thin.

Q: Roughly 25 years ago, you personally turned down a soccer career. In hindsight, what goes through your mind when you watch the World Cup of Soccer for example?

It's a little strange because what happened to me was that I was playing and training with a club, Sheffield United. I did not really like the way it was run. I also picked the wrong club, as I was a Sheffield Wednesday fan (laughs). But the people were not very friendly: it was every man for himself. I was probably a bit too young and a bit too shy, and it crushed me. It was not what I expected it to be. So I did not feel like carrying on. Maybe if I would have gone to another club, things would have been different, with different people and different friends. But the fact that the time that I turned my back on soccer coincided with the band starting to take off sort of took care of that. So it was a natural progression, the finishing of football and beginning of music.

Guess who the band measured themselves against when they first started out...